It
was an announcement of a beautiful day. The mischievous beams of
an arching sun had already weaved their way through the thick
curtains of the bedroom. They weaved their blinding rays around
Candy. With a sulky pout, she turned her head to one side, then
the other, her brows frowning . The burning heat of this July
morning began to invade the room. Candy stretched herself and
stood up as she decided to go out to the terrace to find the day
ultimately fresh. While getting up, she gave a soft look to the
sleeping silhouette at her side. Silently and gingerly, she
pulled down the french-window's handle and passed a foot in the
opening. A light breeze spinned around her, releasing from her
pretty face, the long locks matted during the night. She drew
near the balcony and leaned on the handrail to admire Anthony's
splendid rose-garden which always grew within the vast Andrey's
property. The delicate perfume from the various species of roses
came up towards Candy like a bewitching farandole.
After smelling the tender scents, she smiled one of those
melancholic smiles which often showed up on her lips when painful
memories used to be more present and came to pinch her heart.

"Oh...Anthony," she
sighed sadly.

It had been almost ten years
since Anthony had died in the tragic horse accident. Candy felt a
true panic towards horses, which she rarely kept inside, and
which she could never be rid off. How she missed him still, her
friend, her brother, her childhood love. This fair-haired and big
blue-eyed adolescent whom she had known so well through his poems
and his bouquet of roses had cheered her up and supported her
throughout her horrible stay at Legrand's.

Only one person had succeeded
in sweeping the immense sorrow which had inhabited her during
those longlasting months after Anthony's death. Terrence...Terry...This
name resounded in her head as if it were coming up from an outer-tomb.
She had been trying for so long to chase him from her mind. This
English aristocrat with the sour temper and rebellious locks whom
she had met at Saint Paul's College of London, left her heart in
pieces. How many years had elapsed since that cursed snow-covered
evening when they broke up on the hospital's steps of New York?
She had resigned herself not to count them anymore.

However, she was happy now,
she reassured herself. She had a husband who adored her, and was
surrounded by a family's affection to whom, at the very least,
she had always wanted to be a part of. Despite an affectionate
and wordly lifestyle, she still lived under the permanent fear of
losing this balance, this home that she had been looking for, for
so long. She thought about those beloved people whom she had
loved and lost, as if each being, each thing she had met had to
be removed from her, as if fate had not stopped playing with her,
but continued instead,to test her resistance as she faced the
hazards of life.

She told herself that she had
enough unhappiness and malevolences of all sorts, and that she
deserved a little peace. A call coming from the bedroom shook her
out of her moody thoughts. She turned, stepping back, and found
in the semi-darkness of the room, her husband sitting in bed,
half-raised on his elbow while the other arm reached out to
embrace her. She approached him.

"It was so hot in the
bedroom that I went out for a little fresh air,"she
explained gently. "Did you sleep well darling?"

As an answer, he brushed a
hand across Candy's cheek, then brought her closer to him. He
felt her gentle and refreshed skin softening against him. He
thought that if he could reach her feared mind, the bruise of her
wounds would heal. He often felt her escaping from him,
unvoluntarily lost in her thoughts, alone. His powerlessness to
control his wife's frame of mind, animated and exaggerated the
devastating and painful passion he felt about her. She was like a
little bird that fell from the nest. She had touched him by her
weaknesses, her clumsinesses, but also by the force which
emanated from her and the energy she drew up to surmount the
handicaps of life.

It had not been easy for him
to conquer her. All throughout the years, he succeeded in
charming her affection. Nonetheless, he had to use numerous
efforts and strategies to arrive in making her understand and
accept that he could give her the happiness and tenderness she
was missing. He would never forget that splendid day he had
brought her under the strong oak where they had first met as
children. With his voice that shook like a teenager on his first
date, he had taken her hand and asked her to marry him. Seconds
seemed to him like eternity before Candy's acceptance because he
knew the risk of losing her if she had refused. He had never felt
sure if Candy reciprocated his feelings. However, for several
weeks, it had appeared to him that she was interested in him in a
distinct way, that her gestures toward him betrayed a special
emotion. That was when he had decided to attempt his chance, in
spite of the doubts, that she could share the same feelings as
him. His love for Candy was not reasonable anymore, but
inordinately passionate for this golden curly-haird tomboy with
freckles, who like a chrysalid coming out from its cocoon,
changed herself into a delightful woman. However, he knew that
under her false lively looks, she was hiding secret wounds he
would have to surpass, even fight against to preserve this
happiness she had finally accepted to give him. He was not in the
least annoyed at having been unable to touch her heart without
reaching her soul, which he knew belonged to somebody else...
this missing one whose name was never uttered, but always entered
his mind each time he felt her escaping from him. He knew the
price for that privacy and had accepted it, until one day he
could make her his, selfishly and jealously his, like envying a
treasure.

This is the subject of my
sufferings, fears and joys, he told to himself, as her beautiful,
emerald eyes gazed upon him. Tenderly, he kissed the white skin
of her sweet shoulder.

"Albert..." she
whispered. She quivered a little as he deviated and buried his
face in her untied hair which smelled of perfumed roses.

"You have such beautiful
shoulders," he said with amazement.

He began to untie her
chemise, which, transparent under the sun's rays, revealed with
no reserve, the perfectly shadowed shapes of his wife.
Intimidated always by her and only her, he kissed her. He raised
his head to admire the sweet and fleshy lips that he was eager to
devour. It was she who slowly looked for his. She thought that
this vagabond and adventurer, who stopped his wanderings to take
care of her, had lips that tasted of simplicity and relief, the
subtle ingredients of a next cure. Surely, he would cure her from
this insidious pain which used to eat at her heart and confuse
her soul. Who else than her Prince, whom she had searched for
such a long time, would have the power to chase these shadows of
the past...which was still ever present. She widened her arms to
embrace him and stretched herself down, moaning while he laid
down against her, covering her skin with thousands of kisses. As
he lifted up her nightly dress, his face nestled in the hollow of
her breasts. She could only see glittering blond hair under the
rays of light. As he moved against her body, she felt weak and
inflamed under her ardent husband's caresses. She glimpsed his
troubled and excited look as he bent towards her face. His warm,
burning lips, seized hers in a stifling, oppressing kiss, which
extended the passion, the uncontrolled emotion animating Albert.

"I love you...I love you
so much! "he groaned.

Candy felt herself submitting
to the delicious sensation invading her, when suddenly, a muffled
but strong noise against their bedroom door broke the moment
filled with intense and torrid affections.

They had just enough time to
take a decent position before seeing a little ruffled fair-head
springing up through a slapping door.

"Mummy! Mummy! tell her
to leave me alone!"the child implored by taking refuge
against his mother, who was already busy tying her nighty dress
as much as she could.

"Arthur, darling, what's
going on?" asked Candy while her eyes rose to the woman who
came running in.

"I am sorry, Madam,"
said the maid, turning red as she became aware of having
disturbed a very special moment. "He escaped me while I was
going to give him his bath!"

Candy gave a reproachful gaze
to her son. "Come on Arthur, these are not manners to behave!
Why don't you want Nelly to give you a bath?"

"Because this is
different from Dorothee's," he answered, obviously annoyed.
"She hurt me!" he said, pointing to his chin.

"How come! Hurts you?"
Candy was surprised.

"Yes, she rubs me too
strongly and it hurts!" he retorted with a more energetic
tone, feeling that he had touched a very sensitive point.

"Do believe Madam that I
do my best!" the embarrassed maid cried out, "But he
does not stop moving and I am obliged to force a little bit more
when I rub... "

"Tell me something
Arthur," asked Candy while taking her son's face between her
hands. "Have you decided to make Nelly's life impossible, by
thinking that, maybe it would make Dorothee come back sooner?"

"Euh...I..." Arthur
said, amazed of having his plan so quickly discovered.

"You know that Dorothee
has gone to visit her sister who lives at the other side of the
country," Candy followed. "It is a long and tiring
journey, you know. Moreover, it has been a very long time that
she has not seen her family again and she misses them a lot. If
you want to worry her and to see her back sooner, as you like,
then I will let you inform her about it yourself. However, don't
come and complain if you find her exhausted, sad, and moreover
ill!" she added with exaggeration, while giving an abetting
wink to her husband.

Candy's tragical version
seemed having the awaited results. The little boy cried out.
"Oh no! Never I wished it for Dorothee, Mummy! That's true I
miss her, but... I 'll be able to wait more few days."

"This is better,"
said Candy and tenderly kissed Arthur on his forehead. "You're
becoming reasonable. This is a sign that you are becoming a man...like
Daddy!" She appealed to her husband, who had been silently
observing the scene. Candy suspected he was a little annoyed by
this sudden intrusion which had put an end, although fleeting, to
their "reapproached intimacy".

"Yes darling, pretty
soon, you'll be one,"answered Albert while straighening up
on the bed. "Come and kiss me instead of annoying those
ladies with your childishnesses."

They look like each other so
much, Candy thought as she watched them together. I have always
been told that Albert used to look like Anthony at the same age.
I deduced then that Arthur might look like him too. I have often
regretted not having known Anthony in his childhood! And now, I
have his copy in flesh and bones...and this is my son.... My two
loves, she whispered peacefully with emotion. She went to embrace
them against her heart.

"Hum, hum!..."
hemmed the maid showing her impatience.

"Oh, sorry Nelly,"
apologized Candy. "Go back to your work. I will take care of
my son's bath today." Then turning her son she asked, "What
do you think about having it together?"

The maid looked disconcerted
and raised her eyes towards the ceiling and sighed. "A new
thing yet!" she seemed to think.

"Do you see any
objection if I join you?" asked Albert, with malice,
guessing that he had touched the maid's excessive puritanism.

"Why not," answered
Candy. "There is room enough for three!"

"Oh yes! Oh yes!"
cried out Arthur, clapping his hands. "We are going to have
fun-- three of us!"

"I think that someone is
calling me..."pretexted the maid by eclipsing herself,
missing any argument.

"A little bit wedged,
isn't she?" noticed Candy as she pushed the door after the
maid, while Arthur convulsed with laughter in his parents' bed.
"But, tell me Albert, who chose this Nelly?"

"Great Aunt Elroy,"
he answered, a teasing smile appearing on his lips.

"Everything is clear now!"
exclaimed Candy. She always felt obliged to find the stiffest of
servants!

"So you see that I am
not exaggerating when I say that Dorothee is better!"
launched Arthur.

"Oh you, my little loafer,"
cried out Candy as she simulated running after him. "You are
going to hurry and make the water's bath flow and wait for me ...for
us," she ended by smiling at her husband who had come closer.

"Next time, we won't
forget to lock the bedroom door!"he whispered to her on a
teasing tone, while removing his night shirt and entering the
bathroom.

They had been bustling about
at the kitchen while keeping an attentive ear to the shouts and
laughs coming from upstairs. It was suspected that after the
truce, the bathroom would be found changed into a battle field.
But the personnel did not seem to be bothered anyway by it, and
adapted themselves easily to Candy's exuberances.

Only Nelly appeared to have
difficulties familiarizing with this way of life, very distinct
from all she had experienced in the other high-society families
in which she had worked. Being at Great Aunt Elroy's service for
many years, she had known an austere world whose walls perspired
with oppressing atmosphere of servitude, rigor and discipline.
This perfectly suited the housewife's tyrannical mood. She had
been very shocked when she had arrived to Lakewood to take
Dorothee's place for a few weeks, to discover a peaceful universe
established by owners whose incongruous behavior consisted in
manifesting interest and respect for their attendants. This is
the explanation for never having heard any nasty word about them,
she thought, observing her colleagues' placidity.

However, she had been well
been told that Madame Candy was an intriguing person who was
known, by her abandoned orphan's simperings, to bring upon
herself the very wealthy William Albert Andrey's favors, and
married him. "She might hide her cards," she said to
herself, doubt and suspicion infiltrating with delight into her
thoughts. "Madame Elisa strongly advised me to mistrust her.
I would better stay on my guards," she concluded, as the
cook, Sarah, withdrew her from her unhealthy reflections with a
hit on her elbow.

"Instead of daydreaming,
hurry now to bring Monsieur and Madame's breakfast to the patio.
Do not let them wait. Monsieur Albert is a very busy person."

Surprised, the maid said
nothing. Drawing a bantering smile, she indolently pushed the
breakfast trolley, the noise of her dragging step wearing away
under the wheels' cracking on the floor.

Albert waited until Arthur,
who like all eager children his same age, had asked to end his
breakfast, leave the table and go to play, before at last
deciding to talk to his wife. Embarrassed, he crossed and
uncrossed his legs, delicately setting back his cup of tea. He
took his breath and looked at Candy.

Candy turned around to him,
fearing bad news. He reassured her with a smile and tenderly took
her hand.

"I did not dare to talk
you about it yesterday evening. I did not want to waste the few
times we have together," he explained, sounding troubled.
"Do you remember this phone call I had after dinner?"

She remembered her husband's
worried face when he had returned to the living-room. He had
calmed her by pretexting some unimportant litigable questions
with his partners. It was supposed to be nothing.

"To tell you the truth,
this call came from one of our oil exploitation in Venezuela. An
accident happened there, a bursting of one of our drillings.
Damages are important. Some of our workers are injured."

"Are you going there?"
asked Candy, already aware of the answer.

"I cannot leave them so,"
he answered sadly. "The counter-master appeared to me
overtaken by the event. And moreover I have to give some
explanations to local authorities."

"When do you have to go?"
inquired Candy, with a resigned tone.

"In the morning's end,
" he said solemnly, dreading his wife reaction.

"So early!" she
cried out, standing up. "But you've just only come back from
Chicago! We had so few moments together these times!"

"It will only take a few
weeks, "he said weakly defending himself, not really knowing
when he would be back. He knew how much Candy had wished his
presence in Lakewood. Monopolized with family responsibilities,
and also by the administration of the enormous Andrey's fortune,
he was rarely close to his wife and son. Candy had adapted
herself to it, since having known him in his youth, wandering all
along all the world's roads. She thought that business made him
wander in a distinct way, and that beneath it all, he might fancy
this life.

Tired of giving up her place
to her husband's obligations, she had made the decision to
undertake a project really important to her... the building of a
Children's Hospital in Chicago. Throughout the years that she
worked as a nurse, she often regretted the lack of care towards
sick children, who shared their bedroom with grown-ups, without
any worry about their physical and mental distress. She had also
suffered a lot over her impotency to cheer up teary-eyed parents,
constrained to be separated from their child staying at the
hospital because they could not afford the price of a hotel's
room.

Her son's birth had delayed
the start of her project, but as he was going to be six years
old, the age of entering primary school, she had thought that he
was going to become a little more autonomous, and less exacting
for his mother's company. Having the financial resources and her
husband's support in this enterprise, she was happy to be able to
start caring for people in need, and participate in their welfare.
Candy's philanthropic temper had recovered all its vigor and had
begun to awaken her well known hyperactivity, kept latent since
her wedding.

"I could come with you,"
she proposed with no conviction.

"I wish so much that you
could," he sighed. "But you're forgetting the hospital
that you've been working on for so many months. If you go now, it
will never be able to open its doors on its forecast date."

"That's true! We are
already in July," Candy realized. "The work is due to
end in September, and I still need people to hire, material to
order... " She gave an anxious look, understanding the
importance and emergency of the impending tasks.

Albert came close to her and
laid his hands on her shoulders. "Don't worry Darling,"
he said to her, trying to catch her gaze. His hand pushed away a
lock from her pretty face. "I''ll be back as soon as
possible, I promise."

"This is not fair!"
she launched sadly. "I need you so much at present. Every
thing is so fine when you are here," she complained. Candy's
sudden half-revealed fragility was like a dagger into Albert's
heart. He took her against him and embraced her powerfully. He
felt her accelerated heart's rhythm slow down and appease, while
she laid her head against his chest.

"I am going to miss you
so much!" she sighed in whispers.

He raised her delicate chin
with his finger and looked deeply at her. "Not a second, not
an instant will elapse without my thoughts going towards you,
"he said, his face approaching slowly to hers. He was never
tired of admiring her seraphic features, physical expressions of
her soul's purity; a soul who will always be besides him all
along his journey, far away there, in the Southern Americas,
without any consideration about time and distance. He would have
ardently preferred to stay with her and love her, but reality was
used to showing them its pernicious sides. He promised to himself
to take more time to care for her and cheer her up when he
returned. He was so eager to return......

"A separation for a
better meeting again," she said with a smile, her husband's
cheering up sign having an effective result.

He gently kissed her lips and
felt her weakening against him. Candy's slow breath became faster.
She let fall his elegant linen jacket from his shoulders,
unknotted, with a furtive hand, and dropped his sober brown silk
tie, his shirt's collar having given way to her promptness.
Albert's gestures stirred up, captured by the sudden passion she
had awakened. The morning's frustration was stimulating with
unsatisfied instincts which threatened to cede. He rocked her on
the large sofa behind them, caressing with an uncontrolled
precipitation her exquisite rounded shapes. Her bust's tissues
gave their place to skin's fragments whose paleness asked to be
inflamed, colored under her husband's burning assaults.

"Someone could surprise
us," she said in a moan, while her words vanished under the
powerful grasp of a furious kiss.

"He is not ready to
return," whispered Albert, aware she was thinking about
their son. "I saw him going away with the gardener."

Never mind! She thought while
she strongly embraced him, her desire having chased up her
natural reserve, sharpening her woman in love's senses, eager to
live this time intensely. As long as she could keep him close to
her, into her, and share, during a suspended instant, this
sensual rage which possessed them.....

"We can go when you like
Monsieur," said Georges closing the car's trunk. With some
discretion, he disappeared towards the front car. He just had
taken time to show an understanding sign to Candy, knowing how
hard it was for her to separate from her husband. Disappointed
and feeling betrayed by his father's leaving, Arthur had refused
to be present for his departure and had taken refuge in the old
hut built by his cousins when they were children.

She had employed the more
innocent tone, willing to let Albert go, so that his mind may be
free of any concern. She appealed to all her forces to hide her
sadness. She wanted to be strong, at least appear it, until he
disappeared behind the rose-garden gate. She gave a more cheerful
look when he approached her and took her face between his hands.

"Let me look at you,"
he whispered to her hear. "Let me engrave in my mind your
souvenir, your beautiful face, and..." He took a breath, his
insisting gaze grazing each shape of her body. "Let me feel
your thin and perfect features under this lovely but so often
unusual dress," he said with malice.

She turned a bit red,
lowering her head as tears began to show. He plunged his face
into her neck, smelling for the last time her scented perfume of
country's flowers, of Pony's hill.

"I love you," he
said to her, his warm breath invading her nape's rise, her body
shivering with emotion. He squeezed her hand as strong as he
could, then turned back, without a glance, his face looking at
the floor while he entered the car. Candy looked at the car
leaving through a curtain of tears, her hand still imprinted with
Albert's contact. She turned back to the rose-garden, her
desperate gaze looking for some help before allowing her tears to
burst, her body racked with cries. She stayed a few minutes in
the middle's path alone, feeling desperately alone and then
decided to return home.

Lost in her thoughts, she did
not even hear the light noise coming from the roses' hedge
surrounding the iron gate. She did not even notice the blue
profound look, who had been observing her for a moment, his long
and aristocratic silhouette attempting to contain the bursting of
his heart.